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PI < ‘careful consideration. inch of available depth of water. = Sa = ESTABLISHED 1878. VOL. XXII, No. 29. CLEVELAND---JULY 20, 1899---CHICAGO. LAKE CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION. To consider and take action upon all genera questions relating to the navigation and carrying business of the Great Lakes, maintain necessary shipping offices and in general to protect the common interests of Lake Car- tiers, and improve the character of the service rendered to the public. PRESIDENT. FRANK J. FIRTH, Philadelphia. 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT. Capt. THos. WILSON, Cleveland. SECRETARY. CHARLES H. KEEP, Buffalo, TREASURER. GEORGE P. McKay, » Cleveland. COUNSEL. HARVEY D. GOULDER, Cleveland. EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE, JAMES CORRIGAN, Chairman, Cleveland. COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. Grsson L. houeras, Chairman, Buffalo. COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION. GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, Cleveland. MAINTAIN LAKE LEVELS. FRANK J. FIRTH, PRESIDENT LAKE CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION, SUGGESTS THE APPOINTMENT OF AN INTERNATIONAL COM- MISSION TO CONSIDER THE QUESTION OF LAKE LEVELS. PHILADELPHIA, July 15, 1899. THE MARINE RECORD : During the many years in which the important questions of lake levels has received much intelligent consideration there has been a practically universal assent to the conclu- sion that the governing factors are ‘‘rainfall and evapora- tion.’’ It is also well understvuod that these factors cause wide variations in levels between seasons and between different periods in the same season. Of late years n¢w factors have called for investigation and The construction of the American and Canadian locks at the ‘‘Soo”’ with no remedial works in the river to offset their draft upon Lake Superior; the ‘Soo’? power canals upon the Canadian and American sides of the river; the power canals at Niagara Falls; and the Chicago drainage canal; all, separately and unitedly, present questions of grave, national and international im- portance in connection with the economical navigation of the Great Lakes, their connecting waterways and harbors. An able United States engineer estimated that the Chicago drainage canal alone would cause a reduction of seven inches in the Lake Erie levels. In almost all of the com- munications upon the subject it is assumed that small lower- ings of levels caused by such works as the Chicago drain- age canal, for example, are unimportant because the changes in level due to natural causes are so much greater. This may be aserious mistake. The important lake levels to the modern navigator are the lowest levels resulting from natural causes. Vessels are so loaded as to utilize every Lowering of levels from natural causes will often hold a fleet of deeply laden vessels at the head of a strait or the entrance of a harbor, until the conditions change and there is a sufficient depth of water to enable the vessel to proceed with safety. If artificial constructions, such as drainage and power canals, are to still: further and permanently reduce the lowest natural levels it becomes a very serious matter, and one that may ‘involve hundreds of thousands of dollars added each season to the cost of carrying the ore, grain or other staple prod- ucts of our country. It is a mistake to assert, as is done in the communication on lake levels in your issue of July 13th, that comparatively small reductions in lake levels are ‘‘ of no practical impor- tance whatever in comparison with the uncertainty and $2.00 Per Year. 5c. Single Copy. variability and the great importance of the rainfall and evaporation.” The latest of the proposed projects affecting lake levels appears to be an open cut canal from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie. It is time for those interested in maintaining, and, if possible, increasing the lake levels, to advocate and obtain the appointment of an international commission of able United States and Canadian engineers to carefully investi- gate and consider this entire question, recommending to their respective governments a permanent policy that may protect the interests of lake navigators without needlessly restricting important private enterprises desiring to utilize for power or other useful purposes the waters of the Great Lakes. It is a question affecting all the producers and consumers of grain, ore, lumber, coal and other staples depending upon the Great Lakes for their cheap movement to the home and foreign markets. FRANK J. FIRTH. re oor SHIPBUILDING IN GERMANY. The German shipbuilding industry, owing to the numer- ous new steamers ordered, has been profitably employed during the past year, and the statements of the principal companies recently published, with one exception, show favorable results. According to the report of Consul W. K. Anderson, at Hanover, the Vulcan Works at Bremen, which for a long term of years has made a uniformly good showing, was able to pay its stockholders a 12 per cent. dividend, instead of Io per cent. as in 1897. The Howaldts Ship Building Co., at Kiel, paid 7 per cent. dividend, the same as in the previous year, carrying besides a very considerable sum to its reserve fund. The great Neptune Ship Building and Machine Manu- facturing Co., at Rostock, which has never heretofore been able to pay a dividend, now announces that it will pay its shareholders 4 per cent. On the other hand, the Seebeck Ship Building and Dry Dock Co., at Geestemunde-Bremerhaven, after years of prosperity, makes quite an unfavorable showing, its balance on the loss side being the considerable sum of 322,224 marks ($76,689). The special reasons for the loss are not pub-: lished. In 1897, as well asin 1896, it paid dividends of 7% per cent. to its stockholders. Ol ovwll SAILOR VERSUS ENGINEER. In the past, seamanship, was the chief thing. In the pres- ent, seamanship, in the old and strict sense of the word, holds a very subsidiary place. When the winds and the waves and the tides could not be forced, and had to be hu- mored, the mystery of dealing with these elements was a worthy study for a whole life. But today we force the winds, the waves, and the tides, and humour them very little. The seaman is in process of becoming the engineer; every year he becomes more and more the engineer, and it is certain that a much briefer experience of the sea than was formerly needed is now required towards the formation of the good officer. OOOO SS LAST ATLANTIC SIDE WHEELER. The last paddle-wheel Atlantic steamer was the Cunard vessel Scotia, which was launched in 1862. She was 379 feet in length, 47-8 feet beam, was of 3,871 tons, and attained a speed of 1334 knots. Owing to the introduction of the screw propeller the vessel and her sister ship, the Persia, at one time the swiftest vessel on the service, became obsolete, and both were sold, the Persia being converted into a sail- ing vessel in 1868, and the Scotia nearly ten years later into a twin-screw steamer for laying telegraph cables. RAINFALL AND OUTFLOW OF THE GREATLAKES. In answer to a request from Mr. C. A. Keep, secretary of the Lake Carriers’ Association, a report of rainfall and out- flow of the Great Lakes was made by Prof. C. Abbe, Weather Bureau, Department of Agriculture. The important result. therein demonstrated is one that has in fact been long sus- pected, namely, that we know too little about the evapora- tion and the drainage from the watershed of the lake region to justify any minute conclusions. The “drainage or run off”? is a matter that should be determined by hydraulic engineers. In order that the Weather Bureau may respond satisfactorily to the public demands for information on evaporation, Willis L. Moore, Chief of the Weather Bureau, says that it will be necessary to establish a large number of evaporometers in the lake region in such positions as to give the evaporation from the water surface of the lake as dis- tinguished from the measurments in thermoneter shelters usually made by meteorologists. Mr. F. H. Denison, of the Canadian meteorological ser- vice, having established a continuous record, on a large scale, of the oscillations on Lake Ontario, has shown that minute temporary waves have such a.connection with at- mospheric conditions that they may, perhaps, be used to predict distant thunderstorms. These oscillations are of much interest from several points of view, and observations — should be maintained at Weather Bureau stations in con- nection with the evaporometers before mentioned, and in addition to any similar stations that may be maintained by the Chief of Engineers, United States Army, or by the Director of the United States Geological Survey. i oo THE WELLAND CANAL. A marked decline has taken place in the tonnage through the Welland canal since 1893, and strong pleas are being made for harbor improvements at Port Colborne, Ont., its Lake Erie terminal, as it is urged that the lack of harbor facilities at that port is largely responsible for the loss in ~- traffic. In 1893, 1,294,823 tons of grain and merchandise passed through the canal east and west bound. Since then there has been a gradual falling off in shipments, although grain traffic increases on the lakes every year. The grain that passed down the Welland canal in 1893 was about 16 per cent. of the grain receipts at Buffalo; in 1898 it was about 9 per cent. or a loss of 43 per cent. as compared with Buffalo. — The harbor at Port Colborne is in the same condition that it was 17 years ago, when the Welland canal was opened. Lake vessels now require such a depth of water that none of the larger class attempt to enter Port Colborne. While the Canadian government admits the necessity of a better harbor, it seems unwilling to take immediate steps for pro- viding one. Itis urged that this will prove of only tem- porary value unless the canal is enlarged as well, and if the canal is enlarged there would be heavy expenditures re- quired on the St. Lawrence route. The Welland canal is 2634 miles long, and connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario by a cut through the narrow Niagara peninsula. There isa fall of 3263¢ feet in the 27 miles, necessitating 26 locks. These locks are 270 feet in length, 45 feet in width by 14 feet deep, and when the canal was opened it was supposed that provision had been made for the largest lake craft. But the new Sault Ste. Marie canal lock has permitted the construction of such large cargo boats that most of the vessels which could go through the Welland canal have been driven out of the carrying trade. PSAs 3s AN order has been issued by the President extending privi- leges and protection of the American flag to the shipping of Porto Rico and the Philippines. All ships owned by resi- dents of these Islands at the time of the exchange of ratifi- cation of treaties are included in the order.